SEC Football Head Coach Hot Seat Index: Mark Stoops Undoes 12 Years of Progress

Which SEC football head coaches are most likely to be fired now that the regular season is over?

Tanner Johnson | 16 Hours Ago

Nov 16, 2024; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops looks on before the game against the Murray State Racers at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

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Which SEC football head coaches are most likely to be fired now that the regular season is over?

Welcome back to the SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index.

Rivalry weekend was interesting as always in the SEC. Some coaches got huge season-defining victories, while others suffered, crushing defeats. Now that the regular season is over, will any of these head coaches actually be fired?

Here’s the latest update to the SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index.

SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index - End of the regular season

Scorching: Mark Stoops (Kentucky), Jeff Lebby (Mississippi State)

Stoops and Kentucky were embarrassed at home by Louisville. It is the first time that the Cardinals have won the Governor’s Cup since 2017. More than all of the other losses that Kentucky has had this season, this one symbolizes the fall from grace that their program has experienced in 2024. After 12 years of steadily building Kentucky into a respectable program in the SEC, Stoops now has the Wildcats back where they were when he started, at the bottom.

Lebby and Mississippi State failed to pick up an upset victory in the Egg Bowl and finished the season 2-10 and winless in SEC play. There is a good chance that Lebby is safe since this was just his first year, but it was an unmitigated disaster.

Hot: Hugh Freeze (Auburn), Brian Kelly (LSU), Brent Venables (Oklahoma), Sam Pittman (Arkansas)

Freeze and Auburn hung with Alabama for a little bit, but the Tide pulled away and avoided what would've been another stunning upset. Freeze was able to help himself at the end of the year by upsetting Texas A&M, but all that win did was prevent him from going 4-8. A 5-7 record is not much better and is unacceptable at a school like Auburn.

Kelly was able to win the final two games of the regular season to salvage a very disappointing year for LSU. The pressure will be turned up to the max for Kelly next season to finally show the improvement that he's been promising since he arrived in Baton Rouge.

Venables was unable to carry over any momentum from Oklahoma's upset victory over Alabama, as the Sooners were beaten soundly on the road at LSU. 2025 is going to be a very important season for Venables. If he wants to continue at a program with standards as high as Oklahoma has, he's going to have to start winning at a much higher rate than he currently is.

Pittman may have done enough this season to save his job by going 6–6. However, there is also a good chance that Arkansas decides it has had enough of the mediocrity that the program has been mired in for years now. Of all of the head coaches in the hot section, Pittman is in the most danger.

Room temperature: Billy Napier (Florida), Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri), Lane Kiffin (Ole Miss)

Napier led Florida on a complete turnaround to end the season 7–5 on one of the toughest schedules in the country. The Gators still expect to win more than seven games per season, but the way the team rallied around Napier to end the year show shows that the program is moving in the right direction. However, all of this positive energy can dissipate quickly in 2025 since that schedule will be just as brutal.

DeBoer’s loss at Oklahoma will be the lasting memory of his first season in Tuscaloosa. It was the worst loss of the year for Alabama, surpassing the upset at Vanderbilt due to the stunning 24-3 final score. The win in the Iron Bowl to close out the year will not do much to satisfy Alabama fans. Even if Alabama falls backward into the College Football Playoff, this season was certainly a failure for DeBoer. No one hates failure more than Alabama.

Drinkwitz quietly finished the season 9-3, but it still feels like a disappointing year in Columbia. The Tigers had one of the easiest schedules in the conference and were set up to make the playoffs as long as they took care of business. However, they were unable to do so and will be playing in a non-playoff bowl game despite having the talent to make a run with the schedule they had.

The only reason that Kiffin is not in the ice-cold section of the heat index is because of how disappointing it is that Ole Miss missed the playoffs with one of the best rosters in the country. It is fair to wonder if Kiffin will ever be a true contender in Oxford, after missing the best opportunity he has had so far in his head coaching career.

Ice-cold: Kirby Smart (Georgia), Josh Heupel (Tennessee), Steve Sarkisian (Texas), Clark Lea (Vanderbilt), Mike Elko (Texas A&M), Shane Beamer (South Carolina)

These head coaches have the safest jobs in the SEC, but that does not mean they are all in perfect shape.

Smart and Sarkisian will face off in the SEC Championship while Heupel and the Vols wait patiently at home for the playoffs to start. All three of these head coaches have secured spots in the first 12-team playoff.

Lea’s momentum at Vanderbilt came to a halt in the last couple of weeks. He may no longer be the SEC Coach of the Year, but getting Vanderbilt to a bowl game is still quite the accomplishment.

Elko’s Aggies dropped the ball in the worst way possible in their season finale against Texas. In a rivalry game that had more buildup than any other game all season, Texas A&M ended up not even scoring a touchdown on offense. Elko showed clear signs that he is a better head coach than Jimbo Fisher this season, but he needs to show more in the future to prove that he can win big in College Station.

Meanwhile, Beamer and the Gamecocks picked up one of the biggest wins of the entire weekend when they defeated Clemson on the road. South Carolina has a very strong chance to be the fourth and final SEC team that makes the playoffs. Beamer has done a fantastic job in the closing weeks of the season, and South Carolina looks like one of the best teams in the country right now.

Stay tuned: The SEC Head Coach Hot Seat Index will return for bowl season.